


It's moving on to move away

by Tabata



Series: Leoverse [76]
Category: Glee
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-12
Updated: 2020-02-12
Packaged: 2021-02-27 23:06:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,853
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22683703
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tabata/pseuds/Tabata
Summary: After five months of living in Blaine and Leo's guest room, Cody goes back to his old house to retrieve what he left behind when Vince broke up with him. It's time to close a chapter in order to start the new one.
Relationships: Blaine Anderson/Original Male Character(s), Original Male Character/Original Male Character
Series: Leoverse [76]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/30541





	It's moving on to move away

**Author's Note:**

> **WARNING:** This story is a what if from the original 'verse. In the canon course of events that followed the beginning of Broken Heart Syndrome, **this has never happened**.  
> In this specific instance of the universe, Cody and Leo reconnected after years apart, and passion between them reignited and ended up exploding again. As a consequence of that, Cody left his husband, Vince, to start a side relationship with Leo with Blaine's approval.
> 
> Written for this week's COW-T #10, Mission 3. Prompt was "Il Confronto" by Marco Masini.

It's the end of Fall and the days are getting shorter but it's still warm and it hasn't started to rain yet, which is good because the moving is already harder than they had initially thought. Blaine had to hire a moving company because his outrageously expensive sedan certainly wasn't made for something so trivial and Leo's SUV, despite being as big as a house, wasn't enough for all the things Cody had left behind in his old house.

He's not even sure where half this stuff is coming from, honestly. He distinctly remembers looking at the suitcases Vince had packed for him and thinking _This is all I've got. My whole life inside three bags and a few cardboard boxes_. It seemed perfectly reasonable in that moment – he had thought that too, very clearly – because material things had no meaning for him and, aside from his many, many, many clothes that were already all in those suitcases, he had nothing else except all the people involved in that mess.

He wasn't sad, really – not in the way he should have been, at least. He was also sorry, but unfortunately not for the right reasons. Thinking about it now, he was all the wrong things and that's why he stood frozen next to the car while Vince was bringing his things out of the house to place them all at his feet, one suitcase next to the other, gently and in an orderly fashion, as he had done everything else in his life.

Cody cried but he didn't move an inch, he didn't plead, he didn't hold on to his husband's arm trying to stop him, to convince him that they could talk this through. He knew that there was nothing he could do to make things right because deep down _he didn't want to_. 

Vince knew that too, that's why he wasn't as accommodating as Blaine was, he didn't want anything to do with whatever crazy world they were all suddenly living in. Casual cheating he would have forgiven – not right away, perhaps, but in time, because they loved each other and it would have been nothing but a slip, a simple mistake – but this was not the case. Whatever happened between Cody and Leo was deliberate, long wanted, reiterated and, most of all, longed for for at least twenty years, and Cody couldn't bring himself to show the slightest regret for it. That day, in front of their house, Vince could do nothing but throw him out of the house. That was what Cody wanted too, wasn't it?

He wanted to be free of the only thing in the world that could take away from him the chance to be with Leo, if there was one to have.

“You can ask them to come and get the rest of your things at a later time,” Vince said, a bit of venom in his hint. He was hurt, Cody doesn't blame him if he took what little revenge he could when, in fact, it was all pointless anyway. Cody didn't want to come back now, there was no threat of breaking up with him that could convince him to stay and they both knew it.

Cody didn't know, at that time, what was going to happen – that his affair with Leo would go on to become a proper relationship, sanctioned and regulated by Blaine himself – but he already knew that having had a taste of Leo again after all this time, he was not going to go back with Vince. He loved his husband, he had always loved him, but he loved Leo more. He wasn't going to be able to find that peace of mind again to live a relationship that was nice and safe and good, but that wasn't the one he truly wanted. Standing right there next to his packed suitcases, he looked at his husband one last time, knowing that it was going to be Leo or no one. There was no other option for him anymore.

Actually, after Vince broke up with him, he grabbed his suitcases and his cardboard boxes and he went straight to the first motel he found, where he proceeded to book a room, throw himself in there and cry himself out. He cried and slept for three days straight, coming out from underneath the blanket only to go to the bathroom.

He was drained and exhausted, overwhelmed as every time too many things together happen to him. He can take anything, overcome everything, but just one thing at the time. This was too much and he couldn't cope. And he was sad, of course, sad in the way you are sad when you lose something you really cherish but not really feel anymore: you're more sad because of the loss itself than for the thing you have lost. You're sad for being sad. Also, there was that tiny voice inside his head telling him that the thing that had broken his marriage – that beautiful, impossible, miraculous arrangement between them and Blaine – wasn't going to last. Allowing Cody and Leo to have some sort of controlled affair while both were already married was one thing – it was mad, of course, but still reasonable on some level – but letting them have it while Cody was free, that was another.

Cody feared that Blaine was going to put an end to it. In fact, he was quite sure Blaine was expecting Cody to understand that without being told. Nothing was going to be explicitly said, of course, because it was logical – wasn't it? – that this affair could not go on. Cody was not part of _their_ couple – that compact unit that they were, that didn't accept nothing other than itself, not even their children – and surely Cody and Leo weren't a real couple the way the word was usually intended. There was no place for Cody in this dynamic if he hadn't a home and a husband to return to at night.

Still, the fourth night he was too tired to even cry, and when Leo called him, as he had done several times every day for the past three days, he finally answered and told him what had happened and where he was. Leo was there less then twenty minutes later, ready to take him home.

He has spent the last five months in Leo and Blaine's guest room on the first floor of their ridiculously big house – and that's coming from someone who lived his whole adult life in a farm – being treated like part of a family no one has ever talked about out loud but on which Blaine has _clearly_ agreed upon.  
Then, a few weeks ago Blaine insisted on planning a whole room renovation together with Cody, because it was about time, he said, that the guest room became _his_ room; and it was time of retrieving all his stuff from his old home too.

That implied calling Vincent and agree with him a day and a time.

It was the most awkward phone call he had ever done in his life as they had never talked again after the day of their breakup, not even once, and the moment Cody was finally calling him, it was to tell him that he needed his stuff back. Vince sounded annoyed and hurt, and yet a little bit hopeful too, which had made Cody feel guilty because, despite all his doubts and fears, he had never once wondered, in all those months, if he should go back. It had showed up in his voice – Cody didn't want that, but he didn't know how to lie – and so Vince had told him when to come by, saying he was not going to be there.

“We're almost done,” Leo steps out on the balcony of the second floor and places a kiss on his head. “The men are disassembling your giant bookcase right now.”

Cody rests against Leo's chest as he wraps his arms around him. There's such an unimpeded view from the second floor of this house that you can almost see the Hoover Reservoir from up here on a clear day, or that is what the legends say. He never truly managed, but it's still a great sight, especially at sunset. “I should throw away some of this stuff,” he says. “Maybe all of it. There's not enough space for a whole house in my room.”

“We're going to buy a bigger house, then,” Leo leans in to kiss his cheek and then his neck. He's always been touchy, but he is even more so now that touching him is all he can do. “With a bigger room.”

Cody tenses for a second and then takes a deep breath. He has known Leo for too long to get really angry at what comes out of his mouth from time to time. Like all self-centered people, Leo struggles to see anything from a point of view that is not his own. He's ecstatic to have Cody for himself but he dramatically fails to see how their arrangement – Cody's having one single room in _their_ house – can be upsetting for Cody sometimes.

“Don't say that, please.”

“Alright.” Leo doesn't always understand what he said or did wrong, but he learned how to understand when he's been scolded for it and to stop doing whatever it was that he was saying or doing. “But you don't have to worry about space. We can move some things around. Worst case scenario, we can put something in storage. Temporarily. Until we have more space.”

Cody sighs again and turns in his arms to grab his face in his hands and kiss him. “Stop, will you?” He chuckles. “God, you never know when to shut up.”

Blaine clears his throat. That's how he always makes his presence known when he finds them messing around, right before calling them sternly when they ignore him completely. “Kids!”

“Yes, sorry.” Cody clears his throat and takes a step back, forcing Leo to let him go.

They both turn worriedly at the older man, but find him on the door, clearly amused and smirking. “The men are loading the last few things on the van. We're done, but we ran a little late, so I suggest we go.”

Blaine says it lightly, like it's no big deal – he has a way of giving you bad news in the nicest possible way not to scare you. A skill he has always had but that he refined taking care of Leo in the worst period of his life and later on – but Cody can hear the undertone of urgency in his voice. They don't want to cross paths with Vince. Or at least, Cody certainly doesn't want to. Blaine is warning him.

They go downstairs, ready to get in the car and go back home. It's a family night tonight – well, all of them are, but this one is particularly focused on the twins – and they have planned to pick up Harper and Logan from their grandparents' house and take them to the movies and possibly one between McDonald's or Burger King, depending on what the kids and Leo will feel like after gorging on popcorn. The twins have welcomed Cody's presence in the house quite smoothly. Nobody explained to them why he is there, because they are really too young at the moment to get that, but they don't seem to mind. They both love Cody to pieces – Logan is still determined to marry him – and he's staying with them when Blaine or Leo can't, so they're pretty much used to him by now, which makes Cody really really happy.

The men from the moving company are waiting for them inside the van just outside. Cody can see them pretending not to be tired of waiting for them by looking intently at their phone. He would like to reach them and tell them they can go, but he's forced to stop, and Leo and Blaine with him, because Vince is on the door. His husband is as big and strong as he's always been, but there are lines on his face that weren't there before, a kind of frown that makes him look exhausted in a way Cody has never seen him, even after a 18-hour shift in the fields.

“Hi.” That's the first thing he says to them, and Cody can see he's struggling to greet them, but it would be unthinkable for him not to be at least civil. “I thougt I had been clear about the time you could be here.”

Cody can feel Leo tense next to him, so he takes a step forward to prevent him from doing or saying anything that could make this worse than what it probably already will be. Leo used to like Vince a lot, but that was over the moment he took Cody back, that is when he screamed in a hospital full of people that Cody was his boyfriend. That was the first awkward moment that, ultimately, brought them all in this room. Cody is about to speak, but Blaine precedes him, placing himself between them and Vince as he has been doing every day so far.

“Good evening,” he begins with a friendly smile. He would have wanted to remain friends with Vince, share with him the burden that is dealing with the situation, but he knew instantly that that wasn't possible and he accepted it. It doesn't mean he doesn't regret having lost one of the few friends he had, though. “You're right, Vincent, we ran a little late but the bookcase gave us some problems, which we solved, by the way. We were just leaving.”

Vince hears him, but he doesn't seem much interested in the explanation. He nods vaguely and then he turns to look at Cody. “Can I talk to you?”

When he steps forward, Cody feels Leo pulling at his hand for a second and he fears that he's going to make a scene. But, thank God, Leo lets him go. They walk into the kitchen and there's a long awkward silence following the closing of the door.

The kitchen is exactly as it was when he left, all clean and tidy. There is the long wooden table in the corner with its benches covered in patchwork pillows – those were the first things they bought together – and the super modern inductions hobs that fit perfectly with the rest of the furniture because Vince had them encased in an antique stove. Even the gorgeous old cupboard, that belonged to Vince's _nonna_ and that came all the way from Tuscany when they moved to Galena, is still right next to the window. Vince didn't even take down the board with their photos or the wooden plank he used to mark Alex's growth on, which he brought back from the old house even if Alex was already seventeen at that point and had outgrown the plank by ten inches. Cody doesn't know why he's so surprised to find everything exactly as it was after just a few months. Maybe he had expected Vince to erase him from his life by changing everything in it.

“How are you?” Vince asks, resting against the table.

Cody doesn't know what to do with himself. He knows the kitchen so well and yet he doesn't feel at ease in it anymore, so he just stands there, a few feet from the door. “I'm fine,” he answers, apologetically. He would like to say he's miserable just to give him something, but the truth is that he's not. He has his moments of sadness, but he's happy and he can't hide that. “How are you?”

“I don't think I have an answer for that,” Vince says. There's another long silence and Cody feels so uncomfortable that it takes him all he has not to run out of the room. Then Vince speaks again. “This house is too big for just one person.”

“It's going to be different when Alex comes back from New York.” Cody knows this is stupid as soon as it leaves his mouth, but he doesn't know what else to say. This mountain of a man is about to crumble and he can't do anything to avoid that. He's the very reason Vince is in pieces.

“We both know he's not gonna come back here,” Vince chuckles, bitterly. “He wants to be with Timmy. Jeez, that family is unbelievable. Had I had someone else, they had taken them too.”

“Vince...” Cody sighs. “You will always be Alex's father. And Timmy misses you too. He wanted to reach out, but he didn't know if he could. Please, just don't punish him because of me. In fact, he hates me too, so—“

“I don't hate you.”

Cody looks up at him, confused. “You don't?”

Vince shrugs. “It'd be easier if I did, but the truth is that I don't. I'm just hurt and I don't understand you,” he explains, honestly. “What are you even doing right now? Where do you live?”

Cody feels the exasperation in his voice. “At Blaine's.”

“With _both_ of them?” 

Cody feels judged and he doesn't like that. “I don't think we should talk about this,” he says, taking a step back.

“I'm just trying to understand what happened, Cody, because, really, from my perspective this makes no sense at all. What I know is that you had a terrible accident and you almost died. Now, people who go through this kind of stuff usually change somehow, but you went above and beyond that. You woke up from a coma and suddenly our marriage was unimportant because you could finally make out with a guy you had been with for nine months in college twenty years ago. Do you understand how crazy this is?”

Cody frowns. “It's not that easy.”

“Than tell me how it is, help me understand!” Vince raises his voice just a little, not enough to be scary but enough to let him know how upset he is. “What did I do that made you run straight into Leo's arms?”

“Nothing!” Cody shakes his head. “You did nothing! It wasn't your fault, Vince. This thing that happened has nothing to do with you or with our marriage. It's not that.”

“What is it, then? Because I don't get it. He's still married and he has no intention of breaking up with Blaine, right? So, what exactly are you getting from this? What are you for him?”

Cody tenses a little. “What I am for him is for us to decide,” he murmurs. “If this is what you want to talk about, then I don't want to talk at all. I'm sorry if I hurt you, I really am. And I know that saying it doesn't make things right, but that is all I can do, so I'm going to say it anyway. I love you and my love for Leo doesn't change that. You will always have a piece of my heart if you want it. I gave it to you and I wouldn't want to take it back even if I could.”

“It's just a fraction of what he has always had, isn't it?”

“It's everything I could give,” Cody says, honestly. And it's ironic that he knows exactly how these words are not enough. That's what Leo says to him, what hurts the most when they're together. But it's also the truth and it's better to share it. “I gave you all I could, Vince. And I've never wanted to hurt you. Things could have been so much different.”

Vince shakes his head. “No, they couldn't have.” His voice is softer and there's a resigned undertone in it that breaks Cody's heart. “You still want me to give you something that I can't give you, love. I can't share you. Not with someone you love as much as you love me, let alone with someone you clearly love more. That is not what I want and you know that. I'm old-fashioned. I want a monogamous marriage, a husband that is _mine_ alone. This is the only form of love that I can accept. So, as much as I adore you, I will not give you this. I'm sorry.”

“Don't be,” Cody swallows the lump in his throat. “You have every right to want what you want.”

Vince smiles sadly and reaches out to him. He waits for Cody to give him his hand and then he pulls him closer. “So it's really over, hm?”

Cody can't hold his tears anymore, then. He doesn't regret his choice, but it still hurts, maybe it hurts more because of that. “I... I think so.”

Vince takes a deep breath and holds both Cody's hands in his. “Just tell me one last thing, then. Are you happy?” He asks. “And I mean _really_ happy, not just content.”

Cody looks up into his eyes and finds them sad but clear. There's no hate in them, no rage. Vince is still the man he was when they met in Italy. He's still the man who saved him from his own memories, from the pain he was feeling back then, after having lost Leo because of Blaine and then Blaine because of Leo. It's such a cruel irony to lose him now because of both of them.

“I know you want me to tell you I'm miserable, but—“

“That's not what I want,” Vince insists. “Answer the question. Are you happy?”

Cody sniffs, tears running down his cheeks. “Yes, I am,” he sobs. “I'm sorry, but I am.”

“I really hope you're not lying to yourself, Cody.” Vince sighs and then he leans forward to leave a little kiss on his forehead. He lingers there for just a moment, then he's gone. Cody feels suddenly cold and he can't stop the tiny sob that escapes his mouth. “This chat was long due and we'll have to talk again very soon to deal with everything else, but I need you to go now.”

Cody knows Vince is so cold because he's about to break and he doesn't want to take away from him the dignity to do it alone. So he nods and tries to dry his eyes as best as he can, taking deep breaths to calm himself down before leaving the kitchen. The last thing he wants right now is having a worried Leo all over himself.

Vince's sobs start the moment Cody closes the door behind himself and he runs from them. He knows he's a coward, but he can't stand the sound, he can't stand the guilt and the knowledge that he destroyed something and left the ruins of it to Vince.

“Are you alright?” Leo asks right away, looking him up and down, searching for wounds, perhaps. But they're all internal.

Thank God, Blaine wraps an arm around his shoulders and leads him towards the car. “Let's go home.”

It feels good when he says it.

Cody can only hope it'll stop hurting too at some point.


End file.
